The Five Boroughs

New York City is made up of five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. Each one has enough attractions—and enough personality—to be a city all its own. Learn more about them with this guide.

In the mid-2000s, then PEN President Salman Rushdie and his colleagues were disturbed by what they saw as a rift between the United States and the rest of the world. Americans were ignoring outside views, they felt, and the world was shutting out American voices and perspectives.

The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, back for its eighth year from April 30 through May 6, was created to encourage the exchange of ideas between the United States and other countries, and to further PEN's (the acronym stands for "poets, playwrights, essayists, editors and novelists") mission of promoting free expression and human rights. As a famously literary city, an enclave of diversity and a hotbed of creativity, New York is an ideal host for the event and has been its home from the start. (Read nycgo.com's interview with Rushdie—conducted in 2010—for more on the festival's origins and impact.)

In pursuit of a less lofty—but nevertheless laudable—kind of free expression, many of the week's events cost nothing to attend (on the other end of the scale is the PEN Literary Gala, which will set you back $1,000). Read on for day-by-day highlights and check pen.org for details and a full schedule. —Jonathan Zeller

Friday, May 4John Cage: How to Get Started11am–9pm; Symphony Space; $15–$30, $12–$25 for PEN and Symphony Space members, $10–17 for students with valid ID
This collaborative improvisational-performance event unites audience members with notable authors, weaving their spontaneous monologues into one unique work of art. Visit pen.org for details.Go the F**k to Sleep: A Translation Event6pm; Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, Cooper Union; $10, $8 for PEN members and students with valid ID
Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés wrote a "kids' book" that's more for exasperated parents, with an appropriately salty title. This panel explores the challenge of translating expletives.
A Literary Safari6:30pm; Westbeth Center for the Arts; $15, $10 for PEN members and students with valid ID
Devoid of wild animals, this event instead gives participants a look at Westbeth Center for the Arts Housing, the long-running NYC artist community. Festivities include readings and cocktails.
In Conversation: Ludmila Ulitskaya8pm; Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, Cooper Union; $15, $10 for PEN members and students with valid ID
The author reads passages from her long correspondence with Russian oligarch and political prisoner Mikhail Khordorkovsky and talks about current political conditions in the country.